Space photos: First images from our solar system

Photo 'firsts' from space

The close encounter with Pluto by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft gives scientists unprecedented images of the dwarf planet.

At 9 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, the spacecraft sent messages back to mission operations at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, confirming it had completed its mission, ending nerve-wracking hours for the craft's operators on Earth.

In honor of the achievement, here is a gallery of historic first images spacecraft have taken of other objects in the solar system.